ell as many other
matters.

"But," asked Harding, in a still feeble voice, "you did not, then, pick
me up on the beach?"

"No," replied the reporter.

"And did you not bring me to this cave?"

"No."

"At what distance is this cave from the sea?"

"About a mile," replied Pencroft; "and if you are astonished, captain,
we are not less surprised ourselves at seeing you in this place!"

"Indeed," said the engineer, who was recovering gradually, and who took
great interest in these details, "indeed it is very singular!"

"But," resumed the sailor, "can you tell us what happened after you were
carried off by the sea?"

Cyrus Harding considered. He knew very little. The wave had torn him
from the balloon net. He sank at first several fathoms. On returning
to the surface, in the half light, he felt a living creature struggling
near him. It was Top, who had sprung to his help. He saw nothing of the
balloon, which, lightened both of his weight and that of the dog, had
darted away like an arrow.

There he was, in the midst of the angry sea, at a distance which could
not be less than half a mile from the shore. He attempted to struggle
against the billows by swimming vigorously. Top held him up by his
clothes; but a strong current seized him and drove him towards the
north, and after half an hour of exertion, he sank, dragging Top
with him into the depths. From that moment to the moment in which he
recovered to find himself in the arms of his friends he remembered
nothing.

"However," remarked Pencroft, "you must have been thrown on to the
beach, and you must have had strength to walk here, since Neb found your
footmarks!"

"Yes... of course," replied the engineer, thoughtfully; "and you found
no traces of human beings on this coast?"

"Not a trace," replied the reporter; "besides, if by chance you had met
with some deliverer there, just in the nick of time, why should he have
abandoned you after having saved you from the waves?"

"You are right, my dear Spilett. Tell me, Neb," added the engineer,
turning to his servant, "it was not you who... you can't have had a
moment of unconsciousness... during which no, that's absurd.... Do any
of the footsteps still remain?" asked Harding.

"Yes, master," replied Neb; "here, at the entrance, at the back of
the mound, in a place sheltered from the rain and wind. The storm has
destroyed the others."

"Pencroft," said Cyrus Harding, "will you take my shoe and see if it
fit